This year, there are several legislative proposals aimed at guaranteeing affordable health insurance. Gallagher opposes these plans on the grounds that they could bankrupt the state.

And the governor, Senate president and House speaker -- the ones who generally lead the charge for change -- have expressed doubts about rushing into major health care reforms.

``It`s a need, but whether it`s something we`re ready to do this year ... I can`t answer that,`` Chiles said last week.

The typical patient must produce an insurance card before being admitted to a doctor`s office or hospital, or be turned away if it is not an emergency.

Most of those who are insured rely on employer-provided group health plans. But the price of those plans is rising by more than 20 percent a year.

The alternatives are often out of consumers` reach. Individual medical policies can run into thousands of dollars a year. And people with high-risk medical conditions, shut out of the private market, pay double or triple the normal rates to get into Florida`s subsidized health insurance program.

Even the average state employee may be paying 12 percent more next year for health benefits. That`s what Chiles has proposed.

The free ticket to affordable health care is not restricted to officeholders such as Weinstock.

Taxpayers subsidize more than 6,000 health insurance policies, covering every senior state government manager and legislative staff member.

The subsidy`s price tag is $5 million a year, or more than double what Chiles wants to spend next year on a pilot program to bring preventive health care to children.

``It would be tough for the average consumer to believe these people in power can really be sensitive to their needs,`` said Walter Dartland, a former Dade County consumer advocate who ran for insurance commissioner in 1988.

``People with benefits tend to lack an understanding of hardships others can suffer,`` he said.

Even the insurance commissioner acknowledges that he was shocked by what he was charged for health insurance when he was between jobs.

In 1988, while campaigning for his current position, Gallagher said he paid $300 to $500 a month for an individual health policy. He said he thinks he canceled it after a few months because of the expense.

``It was a strain,`` he said. ``It was not (a check) I looked forward to writing every month.``

Force every legislator to find health insurance on his or her own -- just as Gallagher once did -- and the issue would come to a boil, Obradovich said.

``Families are in an outcry over the affordability of health insurance,`` she said. ``(But) if those legislators have not felt the pinch, they may not be likely to pass a desperately needed health plan.``